East central Iowa | If the power goes off and you have milk in the refrigerator just drop a live frog in it.
http://www.mnn.com/green-tech/research-innovations/blogs/if-your-fridge-dies-should-you-put-frogs-in-your-milk
Of course there's more to the story.
"In 2012, researchers from Russia, Finland and Sweden focused on that species, Rana temporaria, due to its traditional use as a milk preservative. Earlier research had identified 21 antibiotics from this species, but Moscow State University chemist A.T. Lebedev and his co-authors found 76 more, some of which rivaled prescription drugs in fighting off Salmonella and Staphylococcus. "These peptides could be potentially useful for the prevention of both pathogenic and antibiotic resistant bacterial strains," the researchers wrote, "while their action may also explain the traditional experience of rural populations" who used the species to preserve milk. Other frog species can probably also delay milk spoilage, but isolating their peptides to make human medicines is a different story. Scientists have tried for years to steal the secrets of frog secretions, but the compounds are often toxic to human cells and can be destroyed by chemicals in our blood. There is hope, however, as researchers continue to tweak the substances' molecular makeup." |
Save your milk if power is lost, just
